Michael Klein: Owner of LaScala's launches two Italian eateries in Old City, Rocchino's and Azione

Rob LaScala, whose flagship restaurant is the casual, family-friendly LaScala's at Seventh and Chestnut Streets, is launching side-by-side Italian concepts a few blocks away.

Earlier this year, he bought the adjoining Old City restau-clubs Paradigm and Dolce.

The Paradigm side has opened as Rocchino's (239 Chestnut St., 215-238-6900), a smart-looking spot, named after his mother's side of the family, with brick walls, a curved bar with moderately priced beers and wines, booths and table seating, and a mammoth, colorfully tiled coal-fired oven that fires up pizzas, pastas, and the like; it's billed as a rustic small-plater, but portions, especially pastas, are decent. It's open for dinner and late night, but hours should expand. LaScala wisely maintained Paradigm's signature restroom doors, which fog up only when locked.

Next door, through a passageway, will be Azione (241 Chestnut St., 215-238-9983), serving family style, a la Carmine's, with straight-ahead red-gravy specialties plus pork loin, short ribs, lamb shank, and a porterhouse in a contemporary room complete with a second bar. It is due to open any day and will be open for dinner.

Pastry chef Jessie Prawlucki, one of the partners in the East Passyunk BYOB Fond, has branched out with Belle Cakery (1437 E. Passyunk Ave., 215-271-2299), a small cafe/takeout operation up the street. It's open from noon to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.

Chef Mike Stollenwerk has decided to hang onto the restaurant space at 1708 Lombard St. that now houses Fish, which he will relocate to 13th and Locust Streets later this month. After the move, he intends to revamp the Lombard spot as a neighborhood bistro called Brick American Eatery; his rep describes it as "casual, comfortable, accessible price points" and says it will have a liquor license.

So Fun! Frozen Yogurt, which debuted in Easton in the spring, will open its second location mid-December, at 315 E. Lancaster Ave. in Wayne, next to the Five Guys in Wayne Shopping Center. If the So Fun name sounds familiar, that is because owner Dick Oelbaum heads the Pennsylvania region for 20 Casual Corner women's and So Fun Kids stores.

December's restaurant openings are expected to include Broad Street Diner, at Broad and Ellsworth Streets, Nomad Pizza, at 611 S. Seventh St., and Brian's, at 9 Kline's Court in Lambertville, N.J. See my blog for updates, menus, and further info.

Rob Holloway, who bought Fathom at Girard Avenue and Shackamaxon Street, is gradually reshaping the Fishtown corner into a neighborhood bar called East Girard Gastropub (EGG Pub, get it?); it's open during cosmetic work.